Cognitive Linguistics. An Introduction

Cognitive Linguistics An Introduction Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green Cognitive Linguistics This book is dedicated to the memory of Larry Trask, 1944–2004, linguist, scholar, teacher, colleague, mentor and friend. COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS AN INTRODUCTION Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green EDINBURGH UNIVERSITY PRESS © Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green, 2006 Edinburgh University Press Ltd 22 George Square, Edinburgh Typeset in Sabon and Gill Sans by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester, and printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 7486 1831 7 (hardback) ISBN 0 7486 1832 5 (paperback) The right of Vyvyan Evans and Melanie Green to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Contents Preface Acknowledgements Abbreviations, symbols and transcription Part I Overview of the Cognitive Linguistics Enterprise Introduction 1 What does it mean to know a language? 1.1 What is language for? 1.1.1 The symbolic function of language 1.1.2 The interactive function of language 1.2 The systematic structure of language 1.2.1 Evidence for a system 1.2.2 The systematic structure of thought 1.3 What do linguists do? 1.3.1 What? 1.3.2 Why? 1.3.3 How? 1.3.4 Speaker intuitions 1.3.5 Converging evidence 1.4 What it means to know a language 1.5 Summary Further reading Exercises xix xxiii xxv 3 5 6 6 9 11 12 14 15 15 16 16 16 17 18 20 22 23 v COGNITIVE LINGUISTICS: AN INTRODUCTION 2 The nature of cognitive linguistics: assumptions and commitments 2.1 Two key commitments 2.1.1 The ‘Generalisation Commitment’ 2.1.2 The ‘Cognitive Commitment’ 2.2 The embodied mind 2.2.1 Embodied experience 2.2.2 Embodied cognition 2.2.3 Experiential realism 2.3 Cognit